As AP testing commences, many students are stressing and preparing to receive the highest score they can. The AP exams are college-level tests that high school students take in the first two weeks of May, after completing their year-long AP course. There are many AP class subjects such as AP Chemistry, AP Statistics, AP English Literature, AP Psychology, and more. There are a total of 38 AP courses that consist of different subjects: arts, english, science, social science, computer science, mathematics, language and history. AP classes are important to some students because if a student receives a passing grade on their AP exam, the student can earn college credit.

After asking Wilcox junior, Maryam Radwan, a student who is currently enrolled in five AP classes, what were some ways she prepared and planned her time accordingly, she explained, “I used prep books by Crash Course and Barron’s and read through them while self-testing along the way. I also watched many AP classroom videos and took the practice tests.” AP Classroom is one tool for many AP students that helps them throughout the year in preparation for the AP exams. Many AP exams have questions that students have to answer in the form of short essays called FRQs, SAQs, DBQs, and LEQs– short for Free Response Questions, Short Answer Questions, Document-Based Questions, and Long Essay Questions. Radwan stated, “I took many practice FRQs on AP Classroom and from previous college board exam FRQs as well.”

Many students are stating their predictions for how well (or poorly) they did on their AP exam. Students state that the preparation of the class they take during the year helps a lot as well. Some students agree AP classes strive to prepare them well for the exam, while others lack in certain areas. After asking junior Sohan Patra, which classes prepared him well, his response was, “APUSH, AP Calc BC, and AP CSP were all classes that I was well prepared for because I was provided with multiple practice tests not just near the time of the exam, but throughout the whole year. However, some of my APs I was not as prepared for because we had to practice for the test on our own.”
Although many students rely on their year-long class to teach them most of the curriculum for the AP test, there are a few students who sign up to take the exam despite not being in the class. For example, junior Vidhya Vishwanath, signed up for the AP Psychology exam, but was not in the class at Wilcox. Vishwanath stated, “I decided to self-study on my own, and see how well I do on the exam.” Vishwanath is hoping that she passes the AP Psychology exam. 

Although the weeks leading up to AP week may be stressful for many AP students, it is also rewarding for most in the end. Additionally, many students look forward to when AP week is finally over, because they can cruise through the final few weeks left of school in their AP classes.